Medical monitoring optical computing device

Abstract

Various embodiments of optical computing devices utilized in healthcare-related applications.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A method for medical monitoring utilizing an optical computing device, the method comprising:
 optically interacting electromagnetic radiation with a sample to produce sample-interacted light; 
 optically interacting the sample-interacted light with a multivariate optical calculation device forming part of the optical computing device, the multivariate optical calculation device having an Integrated Computational Element (“ICE”) core and being positioned to perform a regression calculation on the sample-interacted light to thereby produce a signal which corresponds to at least one medical characteristic of the sample; 
 determine at least one medical characteristic of the sample using the signal, wherein the optical computing device is an antigen-based rapid diagnostic test (“RDT”) device; 
 determine, using the multivariate optical calculation device, whether the antigen-based RDT device is temperature damaged or water damaged; and 
 responsive to a determination the antigen-based RDT device is temperature or water damaged, correcting the signal. 
 
     
     
       2. An optical computing method as defined in  claim 1 , wherein:
 the sample is food; and 
 the signal corresponding to the medical characteristic indicates the presence of allergens or sugars. 
 
     
     
       3. An optical computing method as defined in  claim 1 , further comprising communicating an alert signal based upon the signal that corresponds to the medical characteristic of the sample. 
     
     
       4. An optical computing method as defined in  claim 3 , further comprising communicating the alert signal as a visual or audible alert. 
     
     
       5. An optical computing method as defined in  claim 1 , wherein the optical computing device forms part of a portable device having a display, the method further comprising:
 optically interacting the sample-interacted light with the ICE core positioned within the multivariate optical calculation device to produce optically-interacted light, the ICE core being configured to be associated with the medical characteristic of the sample; 
 detecting the optically-interacted light with a detector and thereby generating the signal corresponding to the medical characteristic of the sample; and 
 displaying data related to the medical characteristic on the display. 
 
     
     
       6. An optical computing method as defined in  claim 1 , wherein:
 the optical computing device forms part of a dialysis machine; and 
 the sample is blood. 
 
     
     
       7. An optical computing method as defined in  claim 1 , wherein the optical computing device forms part of a breathalyzer machine, the sample being breathe particles. 
     
     
       8. An optical computing method as defined in  claim 1 , wherein the optical computing device forms part of a skin analysis device, the method further comprising:
 optically interacting the electromagnetic radiation with skin to produce the sample-interacted light; 
 optically interacting the sample-interacted light with the ICE core positioned within the multivariate optical calculation device to produce optically-interacted light, the ICE core being configured to be associated with the medical characteristic of the sample; and 
 detecting the optically-interacted light with a detector and thereby generating the signal corresponding to the medical characteristic of the sample. 
 
     
     
       9. An optical computing method as defined in  claim 8 , wherein the sample is skin or blood within the skin. 
     
     
       10. An optical computing method as defined in  claim 9 , wherein the optical computing device is worn on the skin. 
     
     
       11. An optical computing device to perform the method of  claim 1 . 
     
     
       12. An optical computing device utilized for medical monitoring, the device comprising:
 a housing; and 
 a multivariate optical calculation device inside the housing having an Integrated Computational Element (“ICE”) core and positioned to perform a regression calculation on sample-interacted light to thereby produce a signal which corresponds to at least one medical characteristic of a sample, wherein at least one medical characteristic of the sample is determined using the signal, 
 wherein the optical computing device is an antigen-based rapid diagnostic test (“RDT”) device, and 
 wherein the optical computing device determines, using the multivariate optical calculation device, whether the antigen-based RDT device is temperature damaged or water damaged and responsive to a determination the antigen-based RDT device is temperature or water damaged, correcting the signal. 
 
     
     
       13. An optical computing device as defined in  claim 12 , further comprising:
 a display to display data related to the medical characteristic; or 
 a mechanism to generate an alert signal corresponding to the medical characteristic. 
 
     
     
       14. An optical computing device as defined in  claim 12 , wherein:
 the housing is handheld; and 
 the multivariate optical calculation device comprises:
 one or more channels in which to place the sample; 
 an electromagnetic radiation source to produce light which optically interacts with the sample positioned within the channel to generate the sample-interacted light; 
 the ICE core positioned to optically interact with the sample-interacted light to thereby produce optically-interacted light, the ICE core being associated with the medical characteristic of the sample; and 
 a detector positioned to measure the optically-interacted light and thereby generate a signal utilized to determine the medical characteristic of the sample. 
 
 
     
     
       15. An optical computing device as defined in  claim 12 , wherein the sample is placed on a testing strip positioned along the one or more channels. 
     
     
       16. An optical computing device as defined in  claim 12 , wherein:
 the housing comprises a viewing optic through which to view the sample and an indicator of the medical characteristic; and 
 the multivariate optical calculation device positioned along the viewing optic, the multivariate optical calculation device comprising the ICE core positioned to optically interact with sample-interacted light to thereby produce optically-interacted light to be viewed by a human eye, the ICE core being associated with the medical characteristic of the sample. 
 
     
     
       17. An optical computing device as defined in  claim 16 , wherein the viewing optic forms part of facial glasses.